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25040Venturebeat.comFacebook unveils antennas for improving Internet access in cities and rural areashttp://venturebeat.com/2016/04/13/facebook-unveils-antennas-for-improving-internet-access-in-cities-and-rural-areas/
http://venturebeat.com/2016/04/13/facebook-unveils-antennas-for-improving-internet-access-in-cities-and-rural-areas/#respondWed, 13 Apr 2016 17:32:01 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1923455Facebook today is showing off its latest unconventional equipment for bringing better Internet connectivity to more people. There are two new projects: the Terragraph antennas for distributing gigabit Internet in dense city environments using both Wi-Fi and cellular signals, and the Aries array of radio antennas for delivering wireless signals to devices in rural areas […]
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Facebook today is showing off its latest unconventional equipment for bringing better Internet connectivity to more people.

There are two new projects: the Terragraph antennas for distributing gigabit Internet in dense city environments using both Wi-Fi and cellular signals, and the Aries array of radio antennas for delivering wireless signals to devices in rural areas — where you don’t always get 4G LTE connections today.

Facebook believes the latter could one day be what 5G looks like in rural areas. But you’re more likely to see Terragraph in the real world before you’ll see Aries.

“We’re currently testing Terragraph at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park and preparing a broader trial with the city of San Jose in California,” Facebook product manager Neeraj Choubey and engineer Ali Yazdan Panah wrote in a blog post. The social networking company intends to bring them to market in association with Internet service providers and mobile operators.

Above: Facebook’s Terregraph project.

Image Credit: Facebook

These initiatives fit in with Facebook’s larger determination to bring the Internet to more people. The company is hopeful about what’s possible when people get connected. But there’s also an obvious implication — these technologies could lead people to join (and stay on) Facebook. The social network is keen to go beyond its current reach of 1.55 billion monthly active users and sign up the next billion on the way to having 5 billion users by 2030. Improving Internet access can make using the Internet — and Facebook — less impractical and more enjoyable.

Besides Facebook, Google is also interested in broadening Internet access globally, with its Project Loon balloons.

As for Aries, Facebook intends to “make this technology open to the wireless communications research and academic community to help build and improve on the already implemented algorithms (or devise new ones) that will help solve broader connectivity challenges of the future,” wrote Choubey and Panah.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2016/04/13/facebook-unveils-antennas-for-improving-internet-access-in-cities-and-rural-areas/feed/01923455Facebook unveils antennas for improving Internet access in cities and rural areasGoogle adds Wi-Fi to Uber cars in Phillyhttp://venturebeat.com/2014/07/22/google-adds-wi-fi-to-uber-cars-in-philly/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/22/google-adds-wi-fi-to-uber-cars-in-philly/#respondTue, 22 Jul 2014 16:30:40 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1511314Beginning today, Uber will offer free Wi-Fi through Labor Day in Uber Black Car vehicles throughout the Philadelphia area, courtesy of Google. The goal is to attract people who want to work while traveling. Uber has made the feature easy to use for those already familiar with its app interface. To request a car featuring uberWIFI, users […]
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Beginning today, Uber will offer free Wi-Fi through Labor Day in Uber Black Car vehicles throughout the Philadelphia area, courtesy of Google. The goal is to attract people who want to work while traveling.

Uber has made the feature easy to use for those already familiar with its app interface. To request a car featuring uberWIFI, users have to open the app, slide the Wi-Fi button at the bottom of the screen, then request a Black Car. This option will provide individuals with a luxury vehicle that can seat up to four people. Once they hop in, they can connect to the Wi-Fi network for free and begin working — or checking their Facebook.

Google Apps for Business is a sponsor of the new program, and Uber was quick to mention on its blog that accessing features like Gmail and Google Docs will be a breeze with its Wi-Fi.

Google Ventures led Uber’s financing round in August 2013 that brought in $258 million. Since then, Google Maps has been integrated into Uber to enhance the user experience. David Drummond, Google’s SVP of Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, also joined the executive board following the round of funding. So it looks like the relationship between Google and Uber is strong.

Uber says that uberWIFI is still in the experimental stage and that users can expect spotty Wi-Fi connectivity. Similarly, it may be tough to get a Black Car with Wi-Fi during peak hours when they are in demand.

However, it’s unlikely that slow Wi-Fi will impede Uber’s success. On June 6, the company announced the end of a financing round that marked $1.2 billion in primary capital.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/22/google-adds-wi-fi-to-uber-cars-in-philly/feed/01511314Google adds Wi-Fi to Uber cars in PhillyComcast buys PowerCloud Systems to fuel a new type of connected homehttp://venturebeat.com/2014/07/14/comcast-buys-powercloud-systems-to-fuel-a-new-type-of-connected-home/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/14/comcast-buys-powercloud-systems-to-fuel-a-new-type-of-connected-home/#respondMon, 14 Jul 2014 15:37:34 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1506614Comcast has acquired PowerCloud Systems, according to Tyson Marian, who works in Strategic Development at Comcast. The company is not disclosing any financial information related to the deal. PowerCloud Systems builds web monitoring tools and analytics software, including Wi-Fi management system Skydog. Last week, Skydog noted on its website that it had been acquired but didn’t provide further […]
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Comcast has acquired PowerCloud Systems, according to Tyson Marian, who works in Strategic Development at Comcast. The company is not disclosing any financial information related to the deal.

PowerCloud Systems builds web monitoring tools and analytics software, including Wi-Fi management system Skydog. Last week, Skydog noted on its website that it had been acquired but didn’t provide further details. Earlier this morning Tech Crunch surmised that Comcast bought the company in a bid to offer new services to its growing audience.

Now, Marian is confirming the acquisition. He says that we can expect to see PowerCloud’s technologies folded into Comcast products starting in 2015. Why buy Skydog you ask? “It’s all around smart Internet,” he says.

Comcast likely recognizes it’s the gatekeeper to the Internet for a lot of people, especially considering it’s in the process of buying Time Warner. So what better way to capitalize on the increasing number of Wi-Fi connected devices in consumer homes than with a new management tool that will allow users (and Comcast) to see what in-home devices are connected through one app?

Marian says Comcast wants to make it easier for you to connect all your devices and manage devices that want to connect to your home network. To this end, the company has developed a combined router/modem, and with Skydog’s technology the company will more easily be able to track what devices are coming in and out of your network, “So you can connect new devices and manage your devices on a home network with heavy heavy security,” says Marian.

He imagines a world where someone walks into a home and a device’s presence is detected. As an example, he says, let’s say the babysitter comes over to watch the kids and her cell phone wants to connect with your network. You can decide to connect her as a guest so she has access to a Wi-Fi connection but not access to your other connected devices — an added security setting. Marian says that being able to connect device to device is another feature the company is considering.

This could be a great application for smart home products. Already a number of products are Wi-Fi connected, and consumers could definitely benefit from a device and app that let’s them control all their things in one place. It could also lead to more money for Comcast if the Internet provider starts offering tiered pricing on the number of devices that connect to your network. As for now, the company isn’t talking details, so we’ll just have to wait until 2015.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/14/comcast-buys-powercloud-systems-to-fuel-a-new-type-of-connected-home/feed/01506614Comcast buys PowerCloud Systems to fuel a new type of connected homeComcast's national Wi-Fi network requires home routershttp://venturebeat.com/2014/06/13/comcast-wi-fi-hotspots-to-count-on-routers-in-homes/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/06/13/comcast-wi-fi-hotspots-to-count-on-routers-in-homes/#respondFri, 13 Jun 2014 16:36:42 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1491679As if Comcast didn’t already have enough people mad at it, today the company confirmed plans to roll out a nationwide Wi-Fi network by using the wireless routers rented by its residential customers in San Francisco. By using all of these home wireless routers, Comcast hopes to create about 8 million hotspots across nearly half the […]
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As if Comcast didn’t already have enough people mad at it, today the company confirmed plans to roll out a nationwide Wi-Fi network by using the wireless routers rented by its residential customers in San Francisco.

By using all of these home wireless routers, Comcast hopes to create about 8 million hotspots across nearly half the country. The problem is, not every customer is happy about it, because it raises security and privacy concerns and allows a giant company to use both the service and equipment that you’re paying for.

The move is sort of the equivalent of that rich kid you knew from college who would blow a month’s worth of money from his wealthy parents within a few days, then spend the rest of the month mooching off everyone else. Meaning, Comcast should probably just spend its own money to create this network of hotspots rather than mooch off its customers.

Comcast has already launched its hotspot program in other cities such as Houston and Seattle. And in these cities, the company said less than one percent of its customers opt out of the program. Although perhaps customers weren’t aware that they could opt out?

The cable provider’s logic is that launching these public Wi-Fi hotspots will give Comcast customers access to the Internet even when they aren’t at home. For instance, someone visiting a friend in an apartment complex might be able to get online even if that friend doesn’t subscribe to an Internet plan. (That is, provided there is at least one Comcast subscriber in close proximity.)

More specifically, those who subscribe to a premium Internet plan will get free access to Comcast’s public Wi-Fi hotspots. Those with less costly Internet service plans will get two free hour-long sessions per month but will have the option of paying a fee to use the hotspots for a set amount of time.

Comcast said it expects to roll out its hotspot program in San Francisco in the near future. Of course, you could opt out of the program or, alternately, purchase your own Wi-Fi router.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2014/06/13/comcast-wi-fi-hotspots-to-count-on-routers-in-homes/feed/01491679Comcast's national Wi-Fi network requires home routersWi-Fi Alliance survey says consumers will embrace the 'internet of everything'http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/07/wifi-alliance-survey-says-consumers-will-embrace-the-internet-of-everything/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/07/wifi-alliance-survey-says-consumers-will-embrace-the-internet-of-everything/#respondTue, 07 Jan 2014 18:00:09 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=87841393 percent of respondents say they want to control their home appliances through remote wireless.
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By connecting ordinary devices to the internet, the tech world is creating the “internet of everything.” And the Wi-Fi Alliance, a collection of companies that make wireless networking devices, believes that Wi-Fi will be the way to make it all happen.

Above: WiFi will connect the internet of everything, says the WiFi alliance.

Image Credit: WiFi Alliance

Wi-Fi will connect the internet of everything, says the Wi-Fi Alliance. The alliance said that it conducted show that 93 percent of smartphone and tablet users think the “internet of things” (which the alliance wants to rename the internet of everything) will positively impact their lives. 72 percent think it will make their lives better. That pretty much means that consumers are poised to embrace big changes in the way they use technology.

One out of four males want to have on-demand video and gaming in the next car they buy. To make this happen, we’ll need a sea change in connectivity, according to Wi-Fi Alliance president and chief executive Edgar Figueroa.

“The internet of everything is not just a discussion for insiders,” said Greg Ennis, technical director of the alliance, in an interview with VentureBeat. “Consumers are well aware that it is coming and they see it as a positive thing.”

While Wi-Fi consumes a lot of power, Ennis believes it can evolve to the point where it will be easy to install in connected devices without draining the device’s battery life.

“That was an issue when it was first put into smartphones, but it has been successful as the technology has moved forward,” he said. “Wi-Fi has demonstrated that it is flexible and expandable.”

The survey found that 77 percent of smartphone and tablet users think Wi-Fi connectivity will be an important purchase consideration for at least one item in their home when they next have to replace it. 90 percent of consumers are more likely to buy products for their household if they can sync everything to their existing WiFi network.

They also expressed concern about products that aren’t compatible with their current Wi-Fi networks.

“These devices will be used for five to 15 years, so it’s important they be compatible,” Ennis said.

They also want connected products to be easy to use. About 84 percent listed these issues as concerns about smart technologies in their homes. Ennis said that users are also concerned about privacy, as they don’t want their smart devices to be used to spy on their habits.

“You don’t want your neighbors to control your devices or find things out about you by monitoring your devices,” Ennis said.

Among the applications people want are smart appliances, home security, smart energy, and in-car entertainment. They want smart lighting, thermostats, irrigation devices, personal health devices and appliances. 63 percent of respondents said that within ten years, the majority of devices they buy will have smart technology.

Wakefield Research conducted the survey for the alliance by interviewing 1,000 smartphone and tablet users via online means between Nov. 25 and Dec. 4. The Wi-Fi industry has sold more than one device for every person on Earth.

Quantenna Communications said it is supplying the chips for ultrafast Wi-Fi routers coming from hardware partners Asus, Mimosa Networks, and Vixs.

The routers can handle data at up to 1.7 gigabits a second, or multiple times faster than typical 802.11ac Wi-Fi wireless networks. The Fremont, Calif.-based Quantenna is making the announcements at the 2014 International CES, the huge tech trade show this week in Las Vegas.

Taiwan-based gadget maker Asus is unveiling its Asus RT-AC87U Wi-Fi home router, which it bills as the world’s fastest Wi-Fi router. It uses Quantenna’s QSR1000 4X4 multiuser multiple input output (MIMO) chip set. For consumers, this means that cheaper and faster Wi-Fi is on its way.

Quantenna designs chips that can transfer data using the Wi-Fi wireless networking protocol at faster rates, making it possible for users to fling high-definition video around the home without worrying about bogging down the network. At 1.7 gigabits a second, the router can transfer data about three times faster than the typical 600 megabits a second for previous-generation 802.11n router chips. Quantenna does that using MIMO, a technique for cramming more data into a wireless network by taking advantage of noise (via beamforming) that would normally cause interference.

“As wireless devices in the home continue to increase and consumers’ reliance on keeping connected at all times to live their daily lives is the norm, the importance people are putting on a great Wi-Fi experience is vastly elevated,” said Tenlong Deng, the associate vice president of networking and wireless devices at Asus. “That’s why we are so pleased to create this latest flagship router product with Quantenna.”

The Asus router uses Quantenna’s 4×4 MU-MIMO chips at the 5 gigahertz band of the wireless spectrum. It promises a larger range as well as faster speed, and that means it should be able to stream high-quality video throughout the home.

Quantenna was founded in 2006 and has raised a whopping $159 million, with funding from Sequoia Capital, Venrock, Sigma Partners, Southern Cross Venture Partners, DAG Ventures, Rusnano, Swisscom Ventures, Grazia Equity, and Telefónica Digital. Rivals include Qualcomm-Atheros, Broadcom, and Marvell. Those companies are all much bigger than Quantenna, but its focus on high-end technology has helped it.

“With the increasing number of bandwidth-intensive activities occurring at once in the average home, consumers put great value in knowing that their Wi-Fi will deliver the wire-like reliability they need,” said Sam Heidari, the CEO of Quantenna. “We are pleased to partner with Asus to bring the first 802.11ac wave 2 home router to market, expanding our channels to consumers by bringing our Service Provider proven industry-leading performance into the retail segment.”

Meanwhile, Vixs and Quantenna are teaming up to create wireless set-top boxes that can transfer UltraHD 4K TV streams around the home. UltraHD video takes up about four times as much bandwidth as traditional 1080p HD video. Vixs’ XCode 6400 set-top box can decode video at 60 frames per second and can display UltraHD at its full resolution. The XCode 6400 reference design (a prototype that others can use for system designs) will be ready in the first quarter.

And Lastly, Quantenna and Mimosa Networks have teamed up to create a wireless chipset. Both companies will jointly develop chips that bridge the gap between fiberoptic cable and Internet users. Mimosa will launch its products in 2014.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/05/quantenna-promises-triple-speed-wifi-routers-in-deals-with-hardware-partners/feed/0878833Quantenna promises triple-speed Wi-Fi routers in deals with hardware partnersFacebook founder is now helping bring high-speed Internet to public schoolshttp://venturebeat.com/2013/12/04/facebook-founder-is-now-helping-bring-high-speed-internet-to-public-schools/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/12/04/facebook-founder-is-now-helping-bring-high-speed-internet-to-public-schools/#commentsWed, 04 Dec 2013 14:00:02 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=867870According to EducationSuperhighway, most schools lack fast enough connections to teach students digital skills, like basic computer programming. So the San Francisco-based nonprofit is working with K-12 school districts to remove any roadblocks to high-speed broadband Internet.
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Students require lightning fast Internet to take advantage of the best electronic learning tools, and schools are under mounting pressure to deliver.

According to a nonprofit called EducationSuperhighway, most schools lack fast enough connections to teach students digital skills, like basic computer programming. So the San Francisco-based firm is working with K-12 school districts to remove any roadblocks to high-speed broadband Internet.

After all, few things are more distracting to students than a garbled video tutorial, or interactive content that won’t load.

“When schools and teachers have access to reliable Internet connections, students can discover new skills and ideas beyond the classroom” said Zuckerberg in a statement. “The future of our economy and society depend largely on the next generation using and building new online tools and services, and I’m glad to support EducationSuperHighway’s work.”

On the company’s website, schools can register for a simple network speed test. Over 600,000 teachers, students, and administrators have already taken the test. The results show that over 70 percent of America’s public schools lack the broadband they need.

Schools are then offered simple instructions to upgrade their infrastructure, while reducing costs. EducationSuperhighway chief executive Evan Marwell has found that most schools are overpaying for their broadband Internet.

Marwell, a serial entrepreneur, said he settled on this particular problem as it’s “really solvable.” The timing is right for this kind of initiative; Marwell has found high-profile supporters in the tech sector. Zuckerberg has taken a personal (and arguably professional) interest in expanding broadband Internet. He recently announced an initiative called Internet.org to bring digital connectivity to the world‘s poorest nations.

The EducationSuperhighway vision is also aligned with government agencies like the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is working closely with the Obama administration to connect 99 percent of America’s K-12 students to gigabit broadband and robust Wi-Fi.

The president recently asked the FCC to revamp and modernize its E-Rate program, which subsidizes Internet services for schools and libraries. In a 2012 report on connectivity in schools, the FCC found 80 percent of E-Rate recipients did not find their broadband to be sufficient, with 78 percent saying they needed more bandwidth.

In the nonprofit’s early days, Marwell was frequently asked whether students could benefit for increased Internet access. Some education experts argue that the Web, with all of its applications and games, is a distraction for students. However, Marwell said he rarely receives this question anymore, as it’s generally assumed that the Internet is a boon for learning.

“We’re seeing a groundswell of activity with teachers trying to adopt new innovative, technology-friendly tools to teach their students,” said Marwell in an interview. “It used to be about access; but now the conversation is about speed and capacity, and that’s what we’re bringing to schools.”

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/12/04/facebook-founder-is-now-helping-bring-high-speed-internet-to-public-schools/feed/1867870Facebook founder is now helping bring high-speed Internet to public schoolsThis $4K desk has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, APIs, a touchscreen — and will save years of your lifehttp://venturebeat.com/2013/11/21/this-4k-desk-has-wifi-bluetooth-apis-a-touchscreen-and-will-save-years-of-your-life/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/11/21/this-4k-desk-has-wifi-bluetooth-apis-a-touchscreen-and-will-save-years-of-your-life/#respondThu, 21 Nov 2013 16:01:53 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=863481The Stir Kinetic is like no desk you've ever seen before. It's a $3,980 work surface that moves, senses your presence, learns your habits, comes equipped with a touchscreen controller, and even breathes, sort of.
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The Stir Kinetic desk is like no desk you’ve ever seen before. It’s a $3,980 work surface that moves, senses your presence, learns your habits, comes equipped with a touchscreen controller, and even breathes, sort of.

Plus, of course, it looks cool in a minimalistic European style. And, it could save your life.

“Over the past years there’s been a lot of research coming out showing that sitting too much is not healthy,” Stir CEO JP Labrosse told me yesterday. “One Australian study that included 10,000 people even said that every hour spent sitting cuts 22.8 minutes off life expectancy.”

Ouch. I’m sitting right now, writing this article.

That’s one of the problems this desk is designed to fix. With built-in motors, the Stir adjusts to multiple heights, allowing you to work in an ordinary office chair, on a lower exercise ball, or standing. There are other desks that do the same, but the Stir is much more intelligent than just that.

“We engage you, too,” Labrosse says. “The desk will invite you to change things up throughout the day, rising a inch or so, very gently, in a motion we call ‘whisperbreath.’ And the desk can track the extra calories you’re burning when standing.”

Apparently, standing for even half the day burns as many calories as a two-mile run, which is a good thing for those of us who hate running. Labrosse started standing around on the job when he worked for Apple on the first iPod team, reporting to Tony Faddel, who is now the CEO of Nest, the smart learning thermostat for your home. And what he learned there, he says, is that standing isn’t just about health, fitness, and not dying years earlier than you otherwise would have.

Rather, it’s about productivity.

“What I learned is that spending part of the day standing makes you feel better at the end of the day, you get more done, and it’s all very positive,” Labrosse told me. “It turns out that when you compare a group of people who spend all day sitting to a group that can move around, there’s an hour difference in terms of productivity.”

The desk itself is simple, even elegant. All cables are hidden inside, and it has four AC power outlets in a little recess on the top left, and two powered USB plugins, so you can keep all your iDevices happily charged. The front has a thermal sensor that tells the desk when you’re there, “waking” the desk, and the desk has a custom-built Linux-based touchscreen device embedded at front left which you use to control the desk, and serves as the desk’s brain.

As you use Stir, it learns your patterns, and starts to suggest times to stand and times to sit. With Wi-Fi integrated and an SDK coming that developers can use to integrate apps and devices with Stir, the desk will also learn from other fitness devices:

“We’ll import outside data streams to make the desk smarter — like from fitness trackers,” Labrosse says. “If the desk learns that you went for a 3-mile run before work, that will affect your activity profile and what the desk suggests for you that morning.”

And the price?

It’s certainly not cheap, and Labrosse knows it. But he’s also not apologetic. The desk is handcrafted in the United States, with the wood finished right in New York. With embedded cabling, connectivity, power supplies, and the touchscreen, it’s also a smart desk that will help you work more effectively, and certainly more elegantly.

And, of course, there’s the health and not dying part of the value proposition.

“This is really an investment in health and productivity,” Labrosse says.

The Stir goes on sale today, and there will be a limited production run of just 50 desks, which will ship in February, with customizable color options for both the surface and the legs. If all goes well, there will be subsequent production runs after that. My guess is that this first run will be massively oversubscribed and that the company will increase the number and frequency of production runs, but that Labrosse won’t rush it.

Great products aren’t made in moments, and he wants to get this right before getting big.

I jokingly asked Labrosse when the bike or treadmill attachment was coming, so you could not just stand, but actually exercise while working. He laughed, and said that he believed in simple products with fewer components.

“But,” he said, “There’s always aftermarket parts.”

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/11/21/this-4k-desk-has-wifi-bluetooth-apis-a-touchscreen-and-will-save-years-of-your-life/feed/0863481This $4K desk has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, APIs, a touchscreen — and will save years of your lifeDon’t power off? The FAA is expected to relax its rules on deviceshttp://venturebeat.com/2013/09/23/dont-power-off-the-f-a-a-is-expected-to-relax-its-rules-on-devices/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/23/dont-power-off-the-f-a-a-is-expected-to-relax-its-rules-on-devices/#respondMon, 23 Sep 2013 16:17:39 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=816996This month, the Federal Aviation Administration will strongly consider relaxing its rules on the use of electronic devices during flights.
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The Federal Aviation Administration will strongly consider relaxing its rules on the use of electronic devices during flights.

Facing pressure from tech-savvy passengers and the press, the FAA is likely to allow digital devices, including e-books, as well as videos and podcasts. However, the ban on making phone calls and sending text messages is expected to remain in place.

A panel of experts will meet this week to investigate the safety concerns for passengers and airline crew. Some people are concerned that cellular signals may interfere with cockpit instruments, but the evidence has been anecdotal at best.

The New York Times reports that the panel will make recommendations to the FAA, and these changes will likely go into effect next month.

Passengers expect to work on flights and are increasingly forgetting to power down devices or are simply ignoring requests from flight attendants. A study by the Airline Passenger Experience Association and the Consumer Electronics Association found that 30 percent of passengers believe they have accidentally left a device on during takeoff or landing.

Another big shift is the prevalence of Wi-Fi on domestic routes — professionals increasingly expect to get work done during the flight. According to a report by Routehappy.com, a website that ranks airlines, 38 percent of U.S. flights now offer Internet connectivity.

The FAA has a tough job ahead: The agency will need to alleviate the safety concerns of flight attendants and some safety-conscious passengers while adapting to the demands of the digital age.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/23/dont-power-off-the-f-a-a-is-expected-to-relax-its-rules-on-devices/feed/0816996Don’t power off? The FAA is expected to relax its rules on devicesFree Zone crowdsources Wi-Fi to bring Latin America online (exclusive)http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/28/free-zone-crowdsources-wifi-to-bring-latin-america-online-exclusive/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/28/free-zone-crowdsources-wifi-to-bring-latin-america-online-exclusive/#commentsWed, 28 Aug 2013 17:21:53 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=804002Free Zone claims to have 220 million Wi-Fi hotspots in its database. Its new premium version will give subscribers full access to commercial Wi-Fi hotspots.
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People in Latin America are coming online at rapid rates, but that doesn’t mean their connection is good. Movile’s Free Zone app is making Internet access more available and affordable to people across the continent by crowdsourcing Wi-Fi.

Movile was founded way back in 1998 to build applications for feature phones. When smartphones began their meteoric rise, the company shifted to building smartphone applications and today serves 20 million monthly active users. However, for many people in Latin America, connectivity remains an issue. Data plans are expensive and the networks are slow. Free Zone was developed to make people aware of Wi-Fi around them so they can find a quicker connection, without the cost.

“Connectivity is not a solved problem, especially in emerging markets,” said Movile cofounder Eduardo Henrique. “We are using mobile to get the middle class, which is 50 percent of Brazil’s population, connected. Most of these people haven’t had Internet access, but this is changing fast. Giving the middle class access to the Internet will create a boom across other sectors, which is good for everybody.”

Wi-Fi hotspots can be costly, hard to find, or difficult to subscribe to. Free Zone makes it easier by crowdsourcing the hotspots so people can open the app and see what available networks are around them. Since Free Zone first launched last year, it has added 220 million hotspots to its database and has 12 million verified hotspots in the network. Over a million of these were accessed last month, and the app has eight million users.

After seeing high demand for this product, Movile saw an opportunity to expand the app to commercial Wi-Fi hotspots as well and charge users a subscription fee for access. It partnered with Boingo, which powers 700,000 hotspots in high-traffic places like airports, hospitals, train stations, malls, entertainment venues, etc. Premium Free Zone users pay a $9.99 per month fee and gain access to these hotspots all around the world.

As tens of millions of people begin accessing the Internet, government, telco corporations, and mobile carriers need to respond accordingly. Connectivity is a limited and valuable resource in Latin American countries, and the coverage needs to be scaled to meet rising demand. This issue is particularly pressing for Brazil, which is hosting the World Cup in 2014 and the 2016 Summer Olympics.

“The government made agreements to improve connectivity and add 4G plans, and the carriers also had goals to meet because of the big events,” Henrique said. “But it’s not enough — that’s why Wi-Fi is super important. All this momentum and all these travelers from around the world will make the government work harder to improve the connectivity.”

The Brazilian government has been in hot water with its citizens as a result of preparations for these events. It spent an estimated $15.4 billion on the World Cup and the extravagant spending set off a string of protests around the country. Citizens are angry that money is being funneled into sporting events and tourism when it could go towards schools and health care. However, if the organizations build a better, strong, Internet infrastructure, this will in theory benefit the population long after the events are gone.

Movile is active in 20 countries and is connected to more than 40 carriers. Latin America is its primary region, but the company is looking to expand Free Zone around the world through partnerships like the one with Boingo. Fon and Open Garden are companies attempting a similar feat. Madrid-based Fon has 11.6 million “Fon spots” around the world and has been around since 2005.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/28/free-zone-crowdsources-wifi-to-bring-latin-america-online-exclusive/feed/1804002Free Zone crowdsources Wi-Fi to bring Latin America online (exclusive)Who’s spying on you, and how to make them stop (infographic)http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/09/whos-spying-on-you-and-how-to-make-them-stop-infographic/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/09/whos-spying-on-you-and-how-to-make-them-stop-infographic/#respondWed, 10 Jul 2013 00:27:37 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=777124What can you do about it besides march, shout, and protest?
]]>We already kn0w Google checks our Gmail to see what ads we might be susceptible to. Advertisers track us from one site to another via retargeting. Hackers want to crack our Wi-Fi, and identify thieves want to steal our online personas.

Essentially, you can fight back by making your devices and your data harder nuts to crack, with technologies like VPNs that encrypt your Internet traffic and habits like strong passwords, deleting cookies, and being very stingy with personal information.

For some of us — moi — it’s likely a lost cause. For the rest of us, here’s how we’re being spied upon, and some tips on how to minimize it:

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/09/whos-spying-on-you-and-how-to-make-them-stop-infographic/feed/0777124Who’s spying on you, and how to make them stop (infographic)Airlines say they view in-flight Wi-Fi as a ‘huge competitive advantage’http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/26/airlines-say-they-view-in-flight-wifi-as-a-huge-competitive-advantage/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/26/airlines-say-they-view-in-flight-wifi-as-a-huge-competitive-advantage/#commentsWed, 26 Jun 2013 12:13:22 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=770048According to a report by Routehappy.com, 38 percent of U.S. flights now offer Internet connectivity. WiFi may soon be the norm on domestic and international flights.
]]>In-flight Wi-Fi may soon be the norm on domestic and international flights, despite some halting starts.

According to a report by Routehappy.com, a website that ranks airlines, 38 percent of U.S. flights now offer Internet connectivity. The data reveals that longer flights — and popular routes — are most likely to be equipped with Wi-Fi. For instance, about 80 percent of nonstop flights between California and New York are connected.

But it’s still just a small fraction of domestic and international flights. As Norweigen recently put it, when the airline became the first to offer high-speed broadband on flights within Europe, Wi-Fi is a “huge competitive advantage.”

Airlines believe that Wi-Fi services will set them apart, so most flights will be equipped with reliable Internet in the coming years. Ironically, Wi-Fi would then be routine — and no longer a competitive edge. To stand out, airlines will need to offer bigger and better services, like streaming movies straight to a smartphone device.

Basic connection is just the beginning.

What’s next for Gogo?

Most airlines offer Gogo, the leading provider of in-dlight Wi-Fi. Illinois-based Gogo filed for its initial public offering on Friday. As of April, just over 1,900 aircraft had Gogo Internet, which is used by nine of the 10 airlines that offer Wi-Fi. Check out ReadWrite’s report on the state of in-flight Wi-Fi — Delta leads the pack, closely followed by SouthWest.

The IPO was perfectly timed, given that the FAA announced last week that it will ease up on in-flight electronic gadgets. Certain devices may no longer need to be powered down during take off and landing, so travelers can work (or play Angry Birds) uninterrupted for the majority of the flight.

Related: For more on airline innovation, check out our story on British Airways’ “hackathon in the sky.”

With the FAA conceding to popular demand, in-flight Wi-Fi is coming into its own.

According to the New York Times, frequent overseas fliers will also be able to access the Internet. Gogo plans to invest the money it makes in its stock offering in an international rollout partly using Ku-band satellite technology, which allows the service to work over oceans.

This would be a strong move for Gogo, as in-flight Wi-Fi is expensive, and hardly seems worth it on short, domestic flights. Today, only about 6 percent of fliers on Gogo-enabled flights used the service in the first quarter, the company says.

British Airways’ executive vice president of the Americas Simon Talling Smith added that “it has taken a while for technology to catch up with the expectations of customers in the air.” Passengers are connected on the domestic flight between San Francisco and New York, but the airline will not implement Wi-Fi in a big way on international flights, as the service is not “reliable” enough.

VentureBeat recently reported that Gogo further increased the pricing on several flights in the United States. Pricing fluctuates, but appears to depend on the popularity of the flight, and the device. On certain flights, it’s marginally cheaper to purchase Wi-Fi on a smartphone device than a laptop or tablet.

Gogo has been quick to point out that it’s still early days for Internet connectivity, and claims that it is still “experimenting” with pricing models.

Wi-Fi may no longer be just an option

With more airlines offering Wi-Fi, Gogo expects that it will be a required expense for business travelers, rather than an option.

In other words, you won’t be able to blow off work, take a nap, and then blame the lack of Wi-Fi on your flight. It will be assumed that traveling employees will be able to access the Internet.

For this reason, Wi-Fi is viewed as an investment with a long-term payoff by the major airlines.

Once all airlines are equipped with Internet connectivity, they will strive to one-up each other. New York Times suggests that airlines are also considering new ways to hook consumers. Select airlines offer high-speed broadband, enabling them to sell and streaming content, not just basic connection. Southwest Airlines started selling movies for $5 on its Wi-Fi-equipped flights early this year.

In addition, American Airlines is leading the charge on offering power outlets, so passengers using Internet for work or play won’t have to be anxious about running out of battery.

Gogo’s IPO raised $187 million, but shares have fluctuated. In a statement to the press, CEO Michael Small said he remains confident: “The credibility of being a public company will help us with airlines around the world.”

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/26/airlines-say-they-view-in-flight-wifi-as-a-huge-competitive-advantage/feed/1770048Airlines say they view in-flight Wi-Fi as a ‘huge competitive advantage’This WiFi system will let you use gesture controls from anywhere in your househttp://venturebeat.com/2013/06/05/this-wifi-system-will-let-you-use-gesture-controls-from-anywhere-in-your-house/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/05/this-wifi-system-will-let-you-use-gesture-controls-from-anywhere-in-your-house/#respondWed, 05 Jun 2013 17:02:38 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=751508This new whole-home gesture recognition system, called WiSee, uses good ol' WiFi to give you ultimate cosmic power through the magic of gestural control from any room in your house.
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You think your Lockitron and your Nest make that flophouse you call an apartment a smart home? Pshhhh, that ish is basic.

This new whole-home gesture recognition system, called WiSee, comes to us courtesy of a few awesome eggheads from the University of Washington, Seattle. It uses good ol’ WiFi to give you ultimate cosmic power through the magic of gestural control from any room in your house.

Get a load of this demo clip:

Using WiSee, you could complete any number of simple tasks just by putting your hands up in the air and waving them like you’re trying to get a computer to do something for you. “For example, using a swipe hand motion in-air, a user could control the music volume while showering, or change the song playing on a music system installed in the living room while cooking, or turn up the thermostat while in bed,” write its creators in an academic paper on WiSee.

The system requires no special wireless standard, can be implemented with normal hardware, can deal with motion interference and even “accidental” gestures not intended to trigger the system.

“As computing moves increasingly away from the desktop, there is a growing need for new ways to interact with computer interfaces,” reads the team’s paper on the system.

WiSee was made by Qifan Pu, Sidhant Gupta, Shyam Gollakota, and Shwetak Patel. To make WiSee, they used Doppler shift properties to monitor wave frequency changes as people move through an environment and the MIMO capabilities of 802.11n to home in on on gestures from a specific user.

Image credit: University of Washington

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/05/this-wifi-system-will-let-you-use-gesture-controls-from-anywhere-in-your-house/feed/0751508This WiFi system will let you use gesture controls from anywhere in your houseFCC’s new Digital Learning director puts focus on increasing Internet in schoolshttp://venturebeat.com/2013/04/29/fccs-new-digital-learning-director-puts-focus-on-increasing-internet-in-schools/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/29/fccs-new-digital-learning-director-puts-focus-on-increasing-internet-in-schools/#respondMon, 29 Apr 2013 19:21:53 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=727348The Federal Communications Commission announced today it has hired Michael Steffan as the director of digital learning. Steffen will lead initiatives to expand access to broadband Internet in schools.
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The Federal Communications Commission announced today it has hired Michael Steffan as the director of digital learning. In his new role, Steffen will lead initiatives to expand access to broadband Internet in schools.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski explained, “Broadband and digital tools have game-changing potential for education.” Improving connectivity is a first step toward teachers and students taking advantage of the new education technology.

The appointment is timely given that senators, like John D. Rockefeller IV, are pushing for an extension of the 2010 E-rate program, which subsidizes Internet services for schools and libraries. The FCC believes that these institutions should offer lightning fast connections to the web.

The FCC, which is currently the largest funder of Internet Connectivity in K12 schools across America, has endorsed E-rate reforms. In January, Chairman Genachowski called for the nation’s mayors to bring one-gigabit Internet access to one community in each state by 2015.

Steffen will draw on experience bringing connectivity to America’s most remote school districts. Most recently, he served as the Chairman’s legal advisor on wireline, international, and Internet policy issues. During that time, he oversaw the creation of the Connect America Fund, a broadband infrastructure program for rural America.

The FCC has stepped up its involvement in education, but is also concerned with other sectors, including health care. Last month, the commission appointed Matthew Quinn as Director of Healthcare Initiatives. In this role, Quinn is helping to facilitate the availability of medical devices that require spectrum; and ensuring that rural hospitals and other health care facilities have required connectivity.

JetBlue is one of the most well-liked airlines in the United States, but its lack of in-flight Wi-Fi — now a necessary tool for business travelers and tech geeks alike — has been its biggest weakness.

But that’s about to change, as the company just confirmed it will be adding in-flight Wi-Fi later this year to some flights, and that it will be powered by ViaSat’s Exede. It’s also promising that JetBlue Wi-Fi — dubbed “Fly-Fi” — will be faster than all in-flight competitors including Gogo, the largest provider of in-flight Wi-Fi in the U.S.

Our service promises to up the experience to satisfy the increasing appetite for connectivity across multiple devices. Fly-Fi will be smarter, newer, faster and better than anything on the market today for commercial aviation. The up-side is, you’ll soon be able to experience Wi-Fi connections that do more than just frustrate you, the down-side is that because it’s a completely new way to deliver connectivity, there’s still a lot of testing to be done before the FAA, signs off, and our customers start seeing it on their JetBlue flights.

Extensive ground testing is currently being conducted by our partners, LiveTV and ViaSat, to make sure our Wi-Fi works well when deployed in the sky. We plan to install the Wi-Fi equipment on our first aircraft coming soon, at which point an extensive FAA certification process begins. Barring any setbacks during certification, we expect our first Wi-Fi-enabled flight with customers to take to the skies later this year.

We look forward to testing the company’s claims that it truly does offer the fastest in-flight Wi-Fi in all the land. For now, check out the video below to see JetBlue’s Wi-Fi in action versus the competition.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/20/jetblue-in-flight-wi-fi/feed/0703043JetBlue confirms in-flight Wi-Fi coming soon, promises it’s way faster than Gogo‘World first’ internet-enabled his-and-hers virtual love toys shipping March 29http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/06/world-first-internet-enabled-his-and-hers-virtual-love-toys-shipping-march-29/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/06/world-first-internet-enabled-his-and-hers-virtual-love-toys-shipping-march-29/#respondThu, 07 Mar 2013 05:34:32 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=634465The "world's first internet-enabled sex toy" is shipping at the end of the month. Soon, Zeus and Hera will be able to satisfy and be satisfied, even when continents apart.
]]>The “world’s first Internet-enabled sex toy” is shipping at the end of the month. Soon, Zeus and Hera will be able to satisfy and be satisfied, even when continents apart.

Can LovePalzBook.com be far behind?

The high-tech sex toys first saw the light of day late last year when the LovePalz project was rejected by Kickstarter. The concept is pretty simple: Each partner has one device — Zeus for men, Hera for women — and applies to certain body parts as needed. Then motion-sensing technology in Zeus senses physical action — speed, pressure, and more — and communicates to Hera over the internet, and vice versa, and simulates a real-life connection in real-time.

Which means, for those who are into that sort of thing, a long-distance relationship can get a lot more … personal.

According to Forrester, the top 15 emerging technologies include next-generation sensors and user interfaces, advanced collaboration, smart products, and systems of engagement. I’m not sure this is precisely what they had in mind while compiling the list.

LovePalz says the rechargeable toys will work with any smartphone or desktop computer over WiFi.

The company has taken 5,000 pre-orders already for the $189 devices — $378 for a set of two — and since February 28, when the company opened up payment capability, 1,800 have already pre-paid.

Starting now, the company says, “toys will no longer be for single use by one person but a fun tool you and your lover can use together.”

It’s a brave new world.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/06/world-first-internet-enabled-his-and-hers-virtual-love-toys-shipping-march-29/feed/0634465‘World first’ internet-enabled his-and-hers virtual love toys shipping March 29Belkin steps up as a buyer for Cisco’s home networking unithttp://venturebeat.com/2013/01/24/belkin-steps-up-as-a-buyer-for-ciscos-home-networking-unit/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/24/belkin-steps-up-as-a-buyer-for-ciscos-home-networking-unit/#respondFri, 25 Jan 2013 00:33:29 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=610271Belkin is acquiring Cisco's Home Networking unit, the company announced today, including its products, employees and the popular Linksys brand, which makes routers for home access points.
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Belkin is acquiring Cisco‘s home networking unit, the company announced today, including its products, employees, and the popular Linksys brand, which makes smart routers for home Wi-Fi access points.

“Belkin’s ultimate goal is to be the global leader in the connected home and wireless networking space, and this acquisition is an important step to realizing that vision,” said Chet Pipkin, Belkin’s CEO, in a statement.

To ensure it’s an easy transition for customers, Belkin claims it will honor valid warranties for current and future Linksys products.

When the deal closes, Belkin will account for approximately 30 percent of the U.S. retail home and small business networking market. Meanwhile, Cisco is looking to exit the consumer business market altogether, recently shuttering its Flip video camera unit.

Instead, the networking giant intends to expand in business software and professional services. The company has made a spate of acquisitions to realize this vision, and yesterday picked up Intucell for a cool $475 million.

“We are pleased about this strategic relationship with Belkin to build on Linksys’ position of strength,” said Hilton Romanski, VP Corporate Business Development at Cisco.

Back in December, Bloomberg reported that Cisco hired Barclays to find a buyer for Linksys. The hunt didn’t last long. But the company likely fetched a lower price the $500 million Cisco paid for it in 2003.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/24/belkin-steps-up-as-a-buyer-for-ciscos-home-networking-unit/feed/0610271Belkin steps up as a buyer for Cisco’s home networking unitThis ‘Smart Baby Scale’ automatically updates Facebook with your newborn’s vital statshttp://venturebeat.com/2013/01/17/this-smart-baby-scale-automatically-updates-facebook-with-your-newborns-vital-stats/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/17/this-smart-baby-scale-automatically-updates-facebook-with-your-newborns-vital-stats/#respondThu, 17 Jan 2013 17:36:34 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=606292Grown-ups have FitBit and Up and assorted other fitness trackers to monitor their own health. Now babies have their own "smart scale" that lets parents "monitor, understand, and share" their kids' growth.
]]>Grown-ups have FitBit and Up and assorted other fitness trackers to monitor their own health. Now babies have their own “smart scale” that lets parents “monitor, understand, and share” their kids’ growth.

And you thought all those baby pics on Facebook were annoying.

The Withings Smart Baby Scale — the first-ever Internet-connected baby and toddler scale — comes armed with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and the must-have accoutrement of every “smart” gadget these days: a companion app. Parents place the baby on the scale, and all the normal vitals show up automagically on the iOS app, or alternatively on a website.

Once digital, baby’s stats can be sent to doctors, pediatricians, or family members. And, reminiscent of Facebook’s frictionless sharing, the scale can be set to automatically update Facebook or Twitter with every last detail of how many ounces Junior gained this past week.

The French company, which also makes a “Smart Baby Monitor” that shows you live video of your child on your iPhone or Android smartphone, won a CES Innovation Award last week in Las Vegas for design and engineering.

Pricing was not announced, but the product will be available in the second quarter of 2013. If you have Facebook friends with newborns, get ready for the onslaught.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/17/this-smart-baby-scale-automatically-updates-facebook-with-your-newborns-vital-stats/feed/0606292This ‘Smart Baby Scale’ automatically updates Facebook with your newborn’s vital statsTotal Wi-Fi shipments reached 5 billion in 2012, will almost quadruple by 2017http://venturebeat.com/2012/12/26/total-wifi-shipments-reached-5-billion-in-2012-will-almost-quadruple-by-2017/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/12/26/total-wifi-shipments-reached-5-billion-in-2012-will-almost-quadruple-by-2017/#commentsWed, 26 Dec 2012 18:33:09 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=595795Total cumulative global WiFi shipments reached five billion in 2012, according to ABI Research. And the pace of innovation isn't slowing, with new WiFi protocols rolling out in 2013 and close to 20 billion WiFi-enabled devices predicted to be in the market by 2017.
]]>Apparently, we love Wi-Fi.

Total cumulative global Wi-Fi-enabled device shipments reached five billion in 2012, according to ABI Research. And the pace of innovation isn’t slowing, with new Wi-Fi protocols rolling out in 2013 and close to 20 billion WiFi-enabled devices predicted to be in the market by 2017.

Naturally, we’re familiar with Wi-Fi in our laptops and smartphones. But the next level of Wi-Fi penetration, the firm says, is likely to be in home automation and smart, connected cars, as manufacturers continue to connect formerly isolated devices, equipment, and other things.

What’s up next? More speed, according to ABI’s Peter Cooney:

“Wi-Fi continues to develop as a technology in many ways,” Cooney said, adding that “the 802.11n protocol is now well established and has pushed the envelope increasing data rates, expanding Wi-Fi into the less crowded 5GHz space.”

The newest Wi-Fi protocols will vastly improve wireless data transfer speeds, with 802.11ac bringing gigabit-Ethernet style speeds and 802.11ad blazing up to a theoretical maximum speed of seven gigabits per second. 802.11b, by contrast, can only manage 11 megabits per second.

Of course, it’s not just Wi-Fi that is connecting our stereos, lights, cars, and smartphones. It’s also the full spectrum of communication technologies such as Bluetooth, UWB, NFC, and Zigbee. In fact, despite the fact that Wi-Fi is pervasive and powerful, it may be one of the least popular wireless communication protocols, as ABI is also predicting that in 2013 all of these technologies (combined with Wi-Fi) will result in more than five billion shipments of wireless connectivity chips in 2013 alone.

Which means that our devices will be smart and connected, even if we’re frying each other with all those radio waves.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2012/12/26/total-wifi-shipments-reached-5-billion-in-2012-will-almost-quadruple-by-2017/feed/1595795Total Wi-Fi shipments reached 5 billion in 2012, will almost quadruple by 20172013 will be the year of ‘the Internet of things’ as more than 5B wireless chips shiphttp://venturebeat.com/2012/12/21/2013-will-be-the-year-of-the-internet-of-things-as-more-than-5-billion-wireless-chips-will-ship/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/12/21/2013-will-be-the-year-of-the-internet-of-things-as-more-than-5-billion-wireless-chips-will-ship/#respondFri, 21 Dec 2012 17:47:29 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=594506Most of those five billion chips won't be in phones, as tablets, sensors, cameras, light bulbs, refrigerators, and more increasingly get connected to the internet.
]]>Over five billion wireless connectivity chips will ship in 2013, according to ABI Research, as our appetite for everything mobile continues to grow. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are both growing, of course, but so are lesser-known specs such as Zigbee, UWB, and, yes, even NFC.

Most of those five billion chips won’t be in phones, as tablets, sensors, cameras, lightbulbs, refrigerators, and more increasingly get connected to the Internet.

I talked to Peter Cooney, a wireless analyst with ABI, just before the the research company’s London offices closed for the Christmas long weekend.

“While the base market is primarily things that we know like smartphones and tablets, the growth is for the internet of things … those devices are growing very quickly,” Cooney said.

Of course, a lot of chips are being made for and shipped in more standard devices, Cooney added: smartphones, tablets, laptops, and netbooks. Even old-school feature phones are incorporating Bluetooth in addition to the standard cellular connectivity radios.

And one technology that we’re not seeing much of this side of the Atlantic is poised for a breakout: NFC. In fact, it’s more than poised, according to Cooney.

“NFC has gone from two million devices in 2010 to 100 million in 2012,” he said. “Android is really driving that growth, but NFC is coming of age … and integration into smartphones is driving growth in other areas.”

In fact, many “other” areas — as in not phones, not tablets, not laptops — are also getting a lot of wireless innovation.

That’s something we’ve seen a lot of this year: sensors and connected switches for windows and doors, lights, heating, and more. SmartThings wants to help you control the real world, as does ReelyActive. And while NFC has been the next great thing for some time, we’re seeing a ton of innovation in the home automation space using multiple wireless protocols.

One of the big trends ABI is seeing is integration — like what Apple did in the iPhone 5 by marrying the LTE and global 4G chips into one.

“They’re essentially integrating to reduce cost and size,” Cooley said. Broadcom, one of the leading suppliers in the “combo IC” (integrated chip) market, will continue to dominate, ABI said.

Even old-fashioned technologies are showing new tricks: Bluetooth smart is coming out, and faster Wi-fi (WiGig) is on the horizon. It all ads up to a lot of wireless devices.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2012/12/21/2013-will-be-the-year-of-the-internet-of-things-as-more-than-5-billion-wireless-chips-will-ship/feed/05945062013 will be the year of ‘the Internet of things’ as more than 5B wireless chips shipMobile commerce’s dirty little secret: it’s slow as Minnesota molasses (in the winter)http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/27/mobile-commerces-dirty-little-secret-its-slow-as-minnesota-molasses-in-the-winter/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/27/mobile-commerces-dirty-little-secret-its-slow-as-minnesota-molasses-in-the-winter/#respondWed, 28 Nov 2012 00:13:36 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=580718Mobile commerce has been the next big thing for some time now, and it's not all hype: 16.3 percent of all online Black Friday online sales were consummated over mobile.
]]>Mobile commerce has been the next big thing for some time now, and it’s not all hype: 16.3 percent of all online Black Friday online sales were consummated over mobile.

Site monitoring and testing company Keynote tracks the speed and reliability of top U.S. e-commerce sites, and over the weekend things slowed down dramatically. Especially today, on Cyber Monday.

“The average page load time for a mobile retail site … on Cyber Monday is now slower than 18 seconds, or roughly twice as slow as normal,” Aaron Rudger, a mobile manager at Keynote, said in a statement.

Above: Fastest mobile sites

Image Credit: Keynote

That’s almost nine times slower than the average time on top e-commerce companies’ desktop sites: 2.27 seconds. And it’s an eternity while you’re standing there staring at your tiny screen. It’s something I’ve noticed personally even when it’s not Black Friday or Cyber Monday, and even when using fast LTE networks with an iPhone 5 or a Google/Samsung Nexus.

But there’s mobile, and there’s mobile.

Of that 16.3 percent of Black Friday commerce that came in over mobile, the lion’s share — 10 of those 16 percentage points — were purchases made on iPads. Only about a quarter of iPads are sold with cellular connectivity — most are Wi-Fi models. And only a very small fraction, about six percent, of iPad browsing sessions come over cellular networks.

All of which means that iPad numbers are very different from what we typically imagine when we think of “mobile commerce.” iPad-facilitated traffic and sales data gets lumped in with smartphones under the big tent of “mobile,” but the tablet experience of a large screen, beefy processor, and fast local Wi-Fi is very different from a tiny screen, over sometimes-jammed cellular networks, and a generally slower processor.

What that means is: mobile shopping on a phone isn’t exactly the best — or speediest — experience.

“This is quite detrimental and will certainly impact a customer’s experience negatively and can easily motivate a shopper to abandon a site altogether or go to a competitor’s mobile shopping site,” Rudger said.

The solution, according to Keynote, is better sites and better testing, especially testing under load.

“The acquisition of Meraki enables Cisco to make simple, secure, cloud managed networks available to our global customer base of mid-sized businesses and enterprises,” said Rob Soderbery, senior vice president of the Cisco Enterprise Networking Group. “These companies have the same IT needs as larger organizations, but without the resources to integrate complex IT solutions.”

Meraki was founded by participants in MIT’s Laboratory for Computer Science in 2006 and has raised $60 million in venture capital, with Sequoia Capital as the primary investor. It is based in San Francisco. With this acquisition, Meraki will form Cisco’s new Cloud Networking Group.

Wireless networking chips are a mature market, dominated by companies like Broadcom and Qualcomm. But Israeli startup Celeno Communications has raised $24 million to start the war for wireless networking chips anew.

Celeno believes it has a wedge into the market because it can offer faster WiFi and consumers are downloading more and more video for multiple screens in their homes using wireless networks. The funding suggests that the company is making good progress toward that goal, the company said. Celeno’s technology promises to double the rate of data flow in a wireless network and increase its range ten-fold compared to standard WiFi networks. That’s important because just about every consumer is sick and tired of lousy wireless Internet access.

Ra’anana, Israel-based Celeno makes high-performance WiFi chips and software for high-definition multimedia and data networking applications. In a fifth round of funding, the company has tapped investors including Cisco, Liberty Global, Greylock Partners, and Pitango Venture Capital. To date, it has raised $68 million, making it one of the rare VC-backed semiconductor companies and one of the biggest bets on wireless networking technology.

Celeno’s chips are already in use at 75 service providers around the world, including Deutsche Telekom, Liberty Global, UPC, Bouygues Telecom, and China Telecom. The company says it can provide “zero packet loss,” which means there will be no annoying artifacts, jerky motion, or snow in a video transferred over a network with Celeno’s chips.

“The new funding comes at an exciting time in our industry as we move toward 802.11ac, the standard set to drive faster WiFi in the home,” said Gilad Rozen, CEO of Celeno. “Celeno, with its superior video-grade WiFi OptimizAir technology, is ideally positioned to capitalize on the increasing requirement by carriers seeking to offer consumers the high-quality video experience they demand on multiple screens throughout the home.”

Celeno’s OptimizAir technology optimizes wireless signals so that it can stream eight 1080p HD video streams over standard WiFi networks, including 802.11a, 802.11n, and 802.11ac protocols. It uses advanced mathematical techniques such as channel-aware scheduling, rate selection, antenna selection and power adaptation for reliable throughput, extended range, and low packet error rate. That basically means it uses known techniques to efficiently manipulate wireless signals to eliminate noise and improve the flow of data. It has smarter antennae and the ability to switch channels to get around interference.

It works with a variety of networking hubs and routers and enables one device to distribute video throughout the home wirelessly to set-top boxes, tablet computers, wireless TVs, digital video recorders, media streamers, laptops, and other devices.

Celeno was founded in 2005 and has 70 employees. Rozen has a lot of experience in digital communications technology and was previously senior vice president at Actelis Networks. He’s also a veteran of the elite research and development unit of the Israeli Defense Forces.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/27/israels-celeno-raises-24m-for-high-performance-wifi-chips/feed/0540237Israel’s Celeno raises $24M to boost WiFi wireless network speedsI want my in-flight WiFi: JetBlue’s wireless networks to be fast enough to stream movieshttp://venturebeat.com/2012/09/17/jetblues-in-flight-wifi-to-be-fast-enough-to-stream-movies/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/17/jetblues-in-flight-wifi-to-be-fast-enough-to-stream-movies/#respondTue, 18 Sep 2012 00:57:17 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=532810JetBlue seeks to distinguish itself with fast in-flight WiFi.
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In-flight WiFi can bog down with lots of bored travelers sharing it. But JetBlue announced today in a company email that its in-flight WiFi will be fast enough early next year to stream movies and TV shows to each airline passenger.

JetBlue said in a memo obtained by The Verge that it will launch high-speed wireless networking on its planes in the first quarter of 2013. Right now, JetBlue uses ViaSat for its WiFi networking. The airline says it will provide free in-flight connectivity until at least 30 planes have been equipped with the high-speed satellite-based WiFi. After a trial period, the service will remain free for email and browsing. But you’ll pay if you want to stream Netflix shows or other movies (like Dark Shadows, pictured above) during the flights. JetBlue expects to deploy the first satellites in a partnership with LiveTV and ViaSat.

The memo said that JetBlue considers free in-flight connectivity to be a competitive advantage over other airlines, particularly those that offer slow service. Only a small percentage of current passengers are satisfied with in-flight WiFi today, the memo said, based on a survey by FlightView. JetBlue promises the ability to load 10 web pages in 1 minute and 18 seconds, compared to 8 minutes and 42 seconds for a rival. JetBlue launched a Ka-band satellite in October with the latest technology.

JetBlue first offered BetaBlue connectivity in 2007, but JetBlue acknowledged that it wasn’t easy to endure in terms of service quality.

In late 1958, John C. Koss created the first portable music system, the Koss 390 phonograph player.

Bulky and heavy by today’s standards, it was compact for a time in which stereo systems were more like furniture. But when Koss showed the player at an audio exposition, audiophiles virtually ignored it, gravitating instead to the true innovation: the world’s first-ever stereo headphones Koss paired with it for demonstration purposes.

Fast forward 60 years.

In 2010, the Koss company found an old battered 390, literally at a garage sale. The company bought it and restored it. Then earlier this year, John’s son Michael, now chief executive of Koss, connected his father’s first invention to one of his own: the first Wi-Fi-powered internet-addressable headphones available on the market.

He then put a record — one of this father’s favorites, Sinatra’s Fly Me to The Moon — on the turntable, and listened to it in the highest possible MP3 quality, wirelessly. The first true over-the air internet headphones were born.

Fly me to the moon

John Koss started the Koss Corporation with a $200 wedding gift that he diverted — with his wife’s permission — to buy 20 broken-down TV sets to refurbish and rent.

But it was only in 1958, when he paired the first stereo headphones with his “portable” music system, that he introduced the world to personal music … sparking a revolution that lives on in the ghetto blaster of the 80s, the Walkman of the 90s, and the iPod of the 2000s.

“Now, we want to deliver that same experience via the web, wirelessly, directly addressable to any individual wearing this device,” says Michael Koss.

Personal music, without wires

The new product is Striva Pro. Koss sent me a pair of the $450 over-the-ear headphones to test — and they’ll be hard to let go after this review is written.

The goal was simple: freedom from wires. All wires.

“We’d been doing a ton of research on headphones, and the one thing that came out was a consistent complaint about wires,” Koss said. “While we’ve had wireless solutions since the 70s … infrared … radio … BlueTooth … we wanted to make something that works over Wi-Fi.”

Wi-Fi has become so ubiquitous that the company would be able to ride existing wireless infrastructure practically everywhere. That realization gave Koss an idea.

“When we did that, we realized we could run it in an infrastructure mode, and anywhere those headphones could connect to the internet … they could receive the same data from our transmitter.”

That’s the key innovation behind the Striva Pro.

It means that I can put on the Koss Strivas in my home, connect to my home Wi-Fi, and enjoy any stream of music available on the internet, wire-free. And I can take the Strivas to Starbucks, my office, the gym, or any other location on planet earth with open Wi-Fi and do exactly the same.

The Strivas have a battery, Wi-Fi chip the size of pencil eraser, and a tiny microprocessor all onboard. Everything is self-contained, wireless, and simple.

Rock it old-school and new-school

Or, of course, you can also just attach the Strivas to my iPhone and play music right from there, just like ordinary headphones.

But what if you want to be wireless even when Wi-Fi is not available? Koss has you covered with the ability to stream wirelessly to the Strivas from non-internet sources.

Above: The CAP, or content access point. About the size of a book of matches.

Image Credit: Koss

Along with the Striva headphones, Koss includes a content access point, or CAP. Tiny, the size of a book of matches, the CAP plugs into any headphone jack. Attach your CAP to your iPhone with the included cable, and you’ve just set up a Wi-Fi transmitter. You could conceivably leave your MP3 player in your gym bag, and go work out wirelessly without the need for a publicly available Wi-Fi access point.

“Our chief financial officer puts his phone in his locker and listens to the music in the gym … up to 300 feet away,” says Koss. “We’ve had it up to 500 feet.”

Or you can simply plug the CAP into your computer and stream wirelessly from iTunes, Windows Media Player, or any other app playing sound on your PC.

Frankly, it’s a game-changer: music from the cloud — or your hard drive — straight to your headphones. It’s all of your music plus the infinite variety of the internet, all available without cables.

How does it work?

Koss didn’t spare much with the Striva. In the box you get no fewer than nine components: the headphones themselves, one charger for both the headphones and the CAP, the CAP itself, and a variety of wires of varying sizes for every possible need. Plus, you get a very nice case.

Above: Selecting the streams and channels you like …

Image Credit: Koss

Once out of the box, you pull out the headphones, plug the CAP into your phone, and go to MyKoss.com.

There you walk through a process of syncing the headphones to the CAP and setting up your music preferences, which involves choosing various channels and streams from internet-based radio stations. Channels are groups of similar stations; streams are individual stations.

None of the music originates with Koss: MyKoss.com simply is the handshake that connects your ears with the internet radio stations you’ve selected.

Once you’ve set up your preferences and synced your CAP and headphones, music from whatever channels you’ve selected will flow automatically to your Strivas. It’s not difficult, but it’s not as easy as it could be either (don’t expect granny to do it herself).

Using the Strivas takes a little bit of instruction, something you might not have had to undergo for any other pair of headphones before, due to Koss’ Apple-ification of the user interface: as few buttons as possible. In fact, there are just two controls: a joystick-like uni-button (my term) on your left ear, and a volume control strip.

Above: Everything but the kitchen sink …

Image Credit: John Koetsier

Turn the Striva on by pressing the joystick — a short press to go into Wi-Fi mode, a long press to look for a broadcasting CAP. Swipe it back for the next stream, forward for the previous stream, push up to “approve a song” … or hold back for the next channel, hold forward for the previous channel … you get the picture.

After a while it’s second nature, but you will be checking the (very good) visual manual more than once.

Volume is a bit of a tricky beast: A long control strip curving up the side of the left headphone. It senses your finger and adjusts the volume up or down as you swipe.

Well, that’s the theory.

In practice, volume control is a little hit and miss, and you’ll find yourself adjusting up and down multiple times to get exactly what you want. I tried different methods: full finger, fingernail, fingertip. Ultimately, a full finger press moving at medium speed seemed to work best. There’s a definite cool factor, and fewer moving parts mean great reliability, but the control strip is exactly optimal right now.

What about the sound?

And audio quality? I asked Michael Koss about that.

“Like everything else, it’s garbage in, garbage out. We’re dealing right now in a society that’s very used to compressed sound … it boggles my mind that I can walk through an airport see teens sharing ear buds, but people have gotten used to that level.”

In practice, I found the headphones to offer excellent sound — depending, as Koss said, on the audio source. Where available, the entire Striva system scales to the quality of 320 kbps MP3 files. That’s better quality than typical music downloaded from iTunes, which is 256 kbps AAC (a different audio codec from MP3).

“We’re quite comfortable with the product we’re releasing. It’s getting the best throughput you can with that technology,” Koss says. “But if the source material is lousy … we can’t do anything about that.”

Would I buy them?

$450 is not a cheap pair of headphones. And the earbud versions, which are coming in a few months, are $500 … the cost of extreme miniaturization.

There’s also room to improve. The volume control can be made more reliable, and MyKoss could be made into a platform that, perhaps, tweets songs that you say you like.

But having all the music on the internet in your head is compelling. And the music you love, wherever you go, without wires … I’ve fallen in love.

Perhaps it’s sort of like the Retina Display iPad or MacBook Pro. Once you’ve used it, you can’t go back (but if you’ve never experienced them, it’s hard to tell what you’re missing). Having experienced my music wirelessly anywhere I wanted it, it’ll be hard to go back to cords.

And Koss hasn’t skimped on any components with the Striva: all the connectors and wires you need are right in the box.

So would I buy them? I’d have to say yes.

As Michael Koss says, “It’s an IP addressable end point that you stick in your ear.” Welcome to the future.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/18/music-on-air-koss-striva/feed/0510754Music on air: Koss reinvents headphones for the wireless internet ageBoingo and Google Offers bring Wi-Fi to New York City’s Internet-starved subway commutershttp://venturebeat.com/2012/06/25/boingo-google-offers-free-wifi/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/06/25/boingo-google-offers-free-wifi/#respondMon, 25 Jun 2012 22:36:23 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=479881With the cost of living in New York City constantly increasing, New Yorkers have come to appreciate anything that’s free. And Wi-Fi provider Boingo‘s latest deal has it working with Google Offers to bring free Wi-Fi to New York City’s subway riders. Boingo offers the free service in six subway stations from June 25 to September 7. The […]
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With the cost of living in New York City constantly increasing, New Yorkers have come to appreciate anything that’s free. And Wi-Fi provider Boingo‘s latest deal has it working with Google Offers to bring free Wi-Fi to New York City’s subway riders.

Boingo offers the free service in six subway stations from June 25 to September 7. The selected platforms are limited to a group of stations along 14th and West 23rd streets in Manhattan.

The free service also extends to the more than 200 above-ground Boingo hotspots in New York City.

For Google Offers, this means that smartphone users can search for local deals while on subway platforms, and for Boingo, it means plenty of exposure.

But Boingo has a much larger stake in this. After all, it’s teaming up with Transit Wireless to bring Wi-Fi to 36 subway stations by the end of the year. By 2017, Boingo says it intends to bring service to over 270 stations, which means that not even subway tunnels will be a viable escape path for technology-weary New Yorkers.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2012/06/25/boingo-google-offers-free-wifi/feed/0479881Boingo and Google Offers bring Wi-Fi to New York City’s Internet-starved subway commutersFrequent travelers are starting to see in-flight WiFi as a necessityhttp://venturebeat.com/2012/06/14/frequent-travelers-are-starting-to-see-in-flight-wifi-as-a-necessity/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/06/14/frequent-travelers-are-starting-to-see-in-flight-wifi-as-a-necessity/#respondThu, 14 Jun 2012 20:00:06 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=473722GUEST: It’s been a little bit more than three years since in-flight WiFi started to really take to the skies, but it’s already becoming an indispensable tool for many travelers. I was at San Francisco airport last Friday waiting for a six-hour flight to New York when the gate agent announced that the aircraft we were […]
]]>GUEST:

It’s been a little bit more than three years since in-flight WiFi started to really take to the skies, but it’s already becoming an indispensable tool for many travelers.

I was at San Francisco airport last Friday waiting for a six-hour flight to New York when the gate agent announced that the aircraft we were scheduled to board was having trouble with WiFi. People around the gate were incredulous. As it turned out, our aircraft had other problems, so they swapped airplanes. When we were boarding, another passenger inquired about the status of WiFi on our new plane. (It worked.)

A lack of in-flight internet access may have played a part in prolonging the mixups during Facebook’s IPO. Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld boarded a United jet from San Francisco to Newark airport shortly after trading began and before the full extent of the problems were known. According to the Wall Street Journal:

Flying at 37,000 feet, Mr. Greifeld was cut off from these stages of the mess. He had an armrest phone, but it didn’t work, he says, adding there was no Internet access on the flight.

If he had been flying United or Virgin America to JFK instead of Newark, he would have had WiFi and could have stayed in touch with the market and the SEC.

(Despite many people’s perception that in-flight WiFi is delivered by satellite, most of the aircraft offering WiFi in the United States use ground-based stations. The reason the phone in Greifeld’s armrest didn’t work was that spectrum was reallocated to Gogo for providing WiFi.)

San Francisco-based Virgin America was the first airline to offer WiFi on every flight, beginning in May 2009.

“Overall, usage is about 16%, but it varies widely across routes (with short hauls and red eyes seeing much lower numbers for example,” said Virgin America spokeswoman Abby Lunardini. “The average uptake across all of our SFO-JFK and SFO-BOS flights (this includes red-eyes!) is now 26%. We believe that the availability of power outlets, our Silicon Valley flyer base, and our other tech-forward features have made our WiFi usage higher than what may be expected.”

Gogo is the leading provider of in-flight WiFi in the U.S., serving Air Canada, AirTran, Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, US Airways, and Virgin. Southwest has WiFi but uses Row44 as its provider. Very few United aircraft have WiFi. Ironically, JetBlue, which was among the first to experiment with in-flight internet on a plane nicknamed BetaBlue is a laggard when it comes to WiFi. Gogo has filed for an IPO and is in its SEC-mandated quiet period. A spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

The odds of having WiFi on a given plane are highest on Virgin America and AirTran (100%, unless something is wrong) and Alaska. Delta has equipped 100% of its mainline U.S. fleet. You’re virtually guaranteed to be out of touch on United and JetBlue. Because of the location of ground stations, WiFi is available over the 48 contiguous United States and border zones in Canada and Mexico.

There’s a productivity component to WiFi. When I was working on one flight, someone responded on Twitter that $18 was a lot for a single flight’s worth of WiFi. But when you divide that by 6 hours, $3 an hour for increased productivity is a bargain.

“There was a time when American Airlines catered to tech-savvy business travelers, as one of the first to offer fleet-wide seat power,” said Swipely CEO Angus Davis. “But recently I was in for a rude surprise when I found a BOS-MIA American flight lacking in-flight Gogo WiFi. Virgin America has raised the bar, and after flying them so often, I just took it for granted that the AA flight would offer WiFi. I was wrong, and it cost me three hours of lost productivity. Next time I’ll double check before booking on AA.”

I would even pay a higher airfare for flights with WiFi than a flight without. In case you’re wondering, this story was written and filed aboard a Virgin flight from JFK to SFO. A speed test on my flight showed 0.32 Mbps downstream and 0.18 Mbps upstream.

United, which doesn’t have WiFi on most of its aircraft, was forced to respond to Virgin’s introduction of WiFi on the lucrative SFO-JFK and LAX-JFK routes. United planes on those routes now have WiFi. Although United used Gogo for those routes, it’s planning on using satellite-based WiFi for the rest of its fleet.

A quick survey I did of my tech-savvy Twitter follower base found that out of 34 respondents, 13 said that availability of WiFi would influence their choice of airline “a lot.” Six more said they “will always fly WiFi equipped planes when available, regardless of cost.” Although they are hardly representative of the general public, many of them are the type of high-value customers airlines covet.

As people have become accustomed to in-flight WiFi, they have also become accustomed to griping about it. Complaints about in-flight WiFi are common on Twitter.

“Latency, poor connectivity and bandwidth often lead to frustration,” wrote one respondent to my survey.

But that may be changing with this summer’s introduction of ATG4 on Virgin America.

“Gogo has estimated on average four times faster speeds than currently available,” Lunardini said.

(For the record, my experience has been that Gogo works better in the air than AT&T’s 4G LTE cellular network does at SFO.)

One respondent wrote, “It’s neat, but I’m also often more productive without the distractions of the Internet. (Possibly relevant: I’m over 40.)”

Although some travelers may consider WiFi indispensable, Virgin doesn’t — at least for now. Lunardini said the airline wouldn’t hold a flight solely to fix a WiFi problem.

It may want to reconsider: According to my survey, 20 out of 34 people would rather wait one hour to have WiFi fixed than fly six hours without it.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2012/06/14/frequent-travelers-are-starting-to-see-in-flight-wifi-as-a-necessity/feed/0473722Frequent travelers are starting to see in-flight WiFi as a necessityIntel laptops and tablets will soon ship with built-in, always-on WiFihttp://venturebeat.com/2012/05/30/intel-wifi-devicescape/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/30/intel-wifi-devicescape/#respondWed, 30 May 2012 19:48:34 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=463140Intel just made a million nerds swoon with the announcement that it would be giving the gift of free, universal WiFi to new ultrabooks and tablets. The chip maker, which powers a huge range of devices from multiple manufacturers, is partnering with WiFi-focused software company Devicescape. That company’s software will integrate with Intel’s Smart Connect […]
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Intel just made a million nerds swoon with the announcement that it would be giving the gift of free, universal WiFi to new ultrabooks and tablets.

The chip maker, which powers a huge range of devices from multiple manufacturers, is partnering with WiFi-focused software company Devicescape. That company’s software will integrate with Intel’s Smart Connect technology to keep those super-skinny computers and shiny tablets online, all the time, automatically.

Devicescape confirmed the news on its website and told reporters that Intel would be using its connection manager software to link laptops and tablets to millions of open global hotspots. The connections will happen automatically, and devices will be able to detect and automatically get onto WiFi networks even while in sleep mode.

Devicescape’s network includes more than 8 million open, quality-controlled WiFi access points. They call it a “curated virtual network,” and it’s constantly being updated by a crowdsourced army of mobile devices that run Devicescape in the background.

To date, the software is being used mostly for mobile devices, which allows carriers and users to switch to open WiFi networks when cellular networks are congested.

Here’s a video showing Devicescape execs explaining how their tech works. You should watch it; the CEO has a hypnotic Scottish accent.

“Smartphones have changed end-user expectations around their device experience, and elements of the mobile experience will naturally make their way into personal computers and tablets,” said the company’s CEO, said David Fraser, in a release today.

“These devices shouldn’t be offline but should be capable of reaching a network automatically to allow for syncing information and notifications. Intel-based devices will now be able to use our global WiFi Offload Network to do exactly that.”

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/30/intel-wifi-devicescape/feed/0463140Intel laptops and tablets will soon ship with built-in, always-on WiFiThreatened by wireless carriers, Time Warner, Comcast, Cox team up for CableWifihttp://venturebeat.com/2012/05/21/time-warner-comcast-cox-cablewifi/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/21/time-warner-comcast-cox-cablewifi/#respondMon, 21 May 2012 14:55:45 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=458168It’s rarely a good thing when the country’s biggest cable providers partner up, but subscribers might be okay with today’s news. Customers of Bright House, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications, and Time Warner will soon be able to connect to each other’s Wi-Fi networks. The combined network, named “CableWifi” will vastly expand each company’s hotspot offerings under […]
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It’s rarely a good thing when the country’s biggest cable providers partner up, but subscribers might be okay with today’s news.

Customers of Bright House, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications, and Time Warner will soon be able to connect to each other’s Wi-Fi networks. The combined network, named “CableWifi” will vastly expand each company’s hotspot offerings under a larger, cross-compatible umbrella.

Connecting to CableWiFi will work via a single set of credentials that can be used across all of the partnership’s 50,000 hotspots in New York City, Los Angeles, Tampa, Orlando, and Philadelphia.

The offer, however, isn’t entirely new. Independently, cable companies have been offering similar deals for their customers for some time. And they’re not new to working together, either: The current partnership is an expansion of a previous one between Comcast, Cablevision, and Time Warner that appeared in 2010.

Instead, the news here is that the five companies, all of which have very significant user bases, are working to counter a greater threat: Wireless providers like Verizon and AT&T which threaten to steal away all of the cable companies’ customers’ mobile Internet time.

To counter that, companies like Time Warner have had to make their mobile Wi-Fi offerings more compelling — making their wireless networks as large as possible is one of the best ways to do that.

But the companies still have a while to go. While 50,000 hot spots is significant, the cable companies’ offerings pale in comparison to those of metro Wi-Fi providers like Boingo, which offers over 500,000 W-iFi hotspots.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/21/time-warner-comcast-cox-cablewifi/feed/0458168Threatened by wireless carriers, Time Warner, Comcast, Cox team up for CableWifiApple backs down from iPad 4G controversy, calls it only “WiFi + Cellular”http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/12/apple-4g-ipad-wifi-cellular/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/12/apple-4g-ipad-wifi-cellular/#respondSat, 12 May 2012 22:23:41 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=429714Apple has changed the name of the latest generation of its cellular-connecting iPad in some countries, calling it simply “iPad WiFi + Cellular,” after a wave of complaints from people claiming that Apple’s previous branding was wrong and misleading. The change was first reported by 9to5Mac. See image below. Until the change, Apple was using […]
]]>Apple has changed the name of the latest generation of its cellular-connecting iPad in some countries, calling it simply “iPad WiFi + Cellular,” after a wave of complaints from people claiming that Apple’s previous branding was wrong and misleading.

Until the change, Apple was using the name “iPad WiFi + 4G,” implying that its newest iPads used fast 4G, or LTE-grade networks. However, in many countries where the newest iPad was being sold, including in Australia and the UK, there were no carriers that actually offered such quality networks. Some consumers felt misled. Australia actually sued Apple. While Apple had previously discontinued its marketing campaigns around 4G in those countries, this is the first time it is actually changing the name of the iPad itself. Apple made the change because of continued confusion in places like the UK.

Notably, Apple even changed the name in the U.S. and Canada, the two countries where 4G LTE is offered by at least five carriers. It also changed the name on its Web sites in UAE, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, New Zealand, Ireland, Hong Kong and Malaysia. However, apparently it hasn’t changed the name in all countries yet — though that’s probably because the change was decided on just a couple of days ago and it probably takes a while for sites to make the change.

Above: Top image is from Apple’s site today; bottom image from May 9th

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/12/apple-4g-ipad-wifi-cellular/feed/0429714Apple backs down from iPad 4G controversy, calls it only “WiFi + Cellular”